


Read Between the Lines

by AlwaysSleeping



Category: Figure Skating RPF, Olympics RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 18:04:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14117928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysSleeping/pseuds/AlwaysSleeping
Summary: Short one shot where Tessa reads a Virtue/Moir fanfiction and comes to a startling realisation.





	Read Between the Lines

**Author's Note:**

> Short little one shot for all my VM stans out there :) hope you enjoy!

She didn’t plan to actually read any. She was just being curious, and could you blame her? Years of tweets and tagged posts talking about something called fanfiction, of course it was going to get the better of her eventually. 

It was a relaxing evening for Tessa: cuddled on the couch with a good book. Her newfound retirement was keeping her busier than she had expected, and a well-deserved night off was in order. Her laptop sat beside her open on her Twitter page, as she thumbed through the pages of a new story, and when a notification popped up on the screen, she ignored it, too engrossed to care. Over the next few minutes though, more noises than usual started to come from the laptop. Eventually, unable to ignore it any longer, Tessa closed her book with a sigh.

She picked up her laptop and upon opening the notifications page, saw that there was nearly 100 tweets with her handle tagged in them over the last 10 minutes. At first, she panics, worried that someone has said or released something bad about her, even though her logical side says there’s nothing bad to be released. However, she soon realises that it’s yet another viral Tessa and Scott fanfiction. These things go around every few weeks, and she’s gotten used to the incessant tagging from fans. Her eyes widen as she sees major news sites posting links to this story, and is surprised that these fanfictions are becoming real worldwide sensations. 

Tessa is well aware that the fans would love for her and Scott to be romantically involved, but it’s just never been like that with them. They’re best friends, partners in crime, like family to each other. Sure, she’s never thought Scott was bad-looking, just never had those feelings for him. These fanfictions only revolve around their non-existent romantic love, and, to be honest, make Tessa a little bit uncomfortable. Obviously, they play love interests on the ice, but that’s where it ends. 

But, it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek, would it? It all seems harmless enough and it’s only fiction after all. And so, with this in mind, Tessa clicks on the link to the story warily. From what she can gather from the summary, this particular fic revolves around Tessa realising her love for Scott at the Olympic celebrations in Canada House. Innocent enough, she thinks, and carries on to begin reading. 

As the story details all of Scott’s little hints that he likes Tessa, she can’t help but think back to real life moments between them, like when he looks into her eyes for just a second too long, or tells her that he loves her with much more than a platonic look on his face. Of course, Patrick never stops telling her that Scott has a thing for her, but surely there was no possible way he was right?

Nope, no way, definitely not, Scott Moir does not have romantic feelings for her. He can’t, he’s had multiple girlfriends during their career, and now they’re retired, surely he would have made a move by now? And anyway, she didn’t like him like that, he was her best friend. Wasn’t he?

“Ugh, Tessa, get a grip.” She whispers under her breath, mentally scolding herself for drinking that last glass of wine. She can’t let this fictional story make her go crazy. She continues skimming through the words, and she’s impressed by how well the writer seems to have captured her usual thought process and mannerisms, and Scott’s too.   
Tessa smiles at the memory of that night, dancing and drinking with her teammates and celebrating all their hard work. Her smile fades as she finds herself wishing to go back to that time, back to when she skated with Scott every day, to when she felt safe and secure in his arms as they danced around the rink. In a friendly way though, she thought. They still lived in the same city, but with Scott busy with his skate shop and coaching, and with her constantly travelling with her fashion and jewellery collaborations, they didn’t see each other very much, only meeting up for lunch or coffee twice a month, if they were lucky. She knew she missed him terribly, and reading this somewhat exaggerated version of that night isn’t helping.

Finally, Tessa gets to the climax of the story, the big moment of realisation and subsequent declaration of love. Her heart rate speeds up as she reads on, knowing she should stop but not being able to tear her eyes away from the screen. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thinks, this is weird, I shouldn’t be reading this, I would never say any of this stuff to Scott! Tessa starts to panic as more and more flashbacks surface in her brain, of the beautiful connection they had across the bar in Scotland, of all those kisses on the cheek and flirty goodnight text messages, of the early morning practices where Scott was always waiting with a coffee and words of encouragement, of the soft “I love you” he whispered in her ear that sent a lightning bolt of warmth through her body just months ago at the Olympics when they completed their final performance, of all those little moments in the last twenty years that seemed insignificant at the time, but now, here, added up to something awful. 

Scott Moir is in love with her. 

And she might just love him back. 

Tessa paces from one side of the living room to the other, running her hands through her hair. “OK, breathe, Tess, just breathe, you’re just tired and you’ve had too much wine, it’s nothing, that story doesn’t mean anything in real life, and maybe Scott does look really good with his hair a little bit longer, but that doesn’t mean you love him!” Tessa rambled out loud, trying desperately to get rid of the thoughts that just went through her head as she finished the fanfiction. 

No matter how hard she tries, she can’t get the image out of her head of a teenage Scott drunkenly telling her, “You’re the only woman I will ever love, Tessa Virtue!” before passing out on his bed after she helped him home from a wild party. That wasn’t the only time it happened through the years, and Tessa can’t shake the feeling that maybe Patrick is right, maybe Scott does like her, love her even. The thought terrifies her, and her breathing quickens again as she descends even further into panic. 

Tessa knows she won’t calm down until she does something about this. Something to put her mind at ease and sleep soundly knowing that their friendship is just that, friendly.   
So, for the first time in her life, Tessa decides to do something without thinking it through whatsoever. 

************************************************************************************************************************************

Scott is surprised when he hears the knock at the door. It’s after 11, and he only placed the order for his pizza 5 minutes ago. However, his friends have been known to show up drunk at his house late at night, looking for a place to crash, so already thinking about where the spare blankets are, he heads over to open the door. 

Tessa was probably the last person he expected to see standing on his doorstep in her pyjamas, shivering and slightly out of breath. It takes him a second to process that she’s actually there, and he can feel the confused expression on his face. 

“Oh my God Tess, what’s wrong, are you OK? Did you walk all the way here, it’s freezing outside!” he lets the worries tumble out, so shocked by her arrival, and immediately wraps his arms around the shaking girl. “We weren’t supposed to meet until next week, what’s-” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before she breaks free from his hug and barrels past him into the apartment. Scott is left staring at an empty doorstep for a second before closing the door and turning to the girl now pacing through his living room. “T, what’s wrong, did something happen?” Scott says, not used to seeing Tessa act like this. He can’t fully comprehend that she’s here, in his apartment, and all he wants to do is wrap her up in a hug and make her stop worrying about whatever she’s worrying about. This is different to her pre-competition pacing, different to her pre-interview pacing, different to anything he’s ever seen, and as he sees tears stream down her face, all he can think about is how hard he’s going to punch whoever made her this upset.

Scott places his hands on Tessa’s shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. “OK, you’re going to wear a hole in the floor! Just breathe, tell me what’s going on?” he says as he gently wipes the tears from her cheeks. Tessa can’t take this, she doesn’t want him to be kind and warm and loving, not when she’s here to break his heart. She moves out of his embrace again, taking three big steps away from him. She can’t be close to him anymore, not with what’s going on in her head. 

“T, seriously, please tell me what’s wrong?” Scott pleads, and before he can blink, Tessa blurts out, “We have to tell them properly!” all in one shaky breath. Scott looks at her with a puzzled expression, his brow creased and hands on his hips. “Excuse me?” he asks, and thinks about how this is probably the weirdest she’s ever acted, except for maybe the morning after that crazy party they went to as teenagers. “We have to tell the press that we’re not a couple.” She announces in a matter-of-fact tone, trying to sound more confident in her decision, but failing to really convince herself that this is for the best. “Haven’t we done that in pretty much every interview we’ve ever had?” Scott remarks with a slight smirk, but it’s wiped off his face as Tessa frowns at him. “No! We’ve literally never confirmed it properly, we always dance around the question for some reason that’s completely unknown to me, because we’re nowhere near a couple, so it’s stupid that we’ve even entertained it for this long, because there’s no way it would ever work between us, right?” Tessa’s words flow out and she can’t seem to stop no matter how hard she tries. She tries not to look at him while she’s reciting everything she practiced on the walk over, but can’t help but notice the look of hurt on his face as she speaks. 

Scott tries not to look shocked at this outpouring of information, but fails. He can feel his heart break a little as Tessa, his Tessa, who he was so sure loved him in return, lists all the reasons why they couldn’t be together. He’s been in deep for years, but he was so sure he’d followed all the signs correctly, picked up on all the little moments, and that she had the same feelings for him as he had for her. “OK, OK, stop with the speech, Tess.” He interrupts her because he’s actually worried she’ll pass out from lack of oxygen. “Why do we need to publicise our private lives all of a sudden?” He’s trying really hard to come up with a plan in his head, something to make her realise the truth. He can read Tessa like a book, and he knows that she’s covering something up. He knows all these practical reasons for them not to be together are just her trying to protect herself, trying to ensure that their 20 year partnership won’t be ruined by something as unreliable as love. 

“Because, Scott, it’s like a real thing now! People are writing all these stories and making videos, and actual important news sites are posting about it! It’s not just Canada anymore, the whole world wants to know, and it’s getting out of hand!” Tessa stops and catches her breath, trying to keep up her confident stance as Scott takes a step towards her. “So what do you propose we do to stop all these rumours, then?” Tessa is confused by Scott’s calm response, and the annoying voice in the back of her head that’s been screaming “Stop, you love him and he loves you!” since she left her house finally falls silent. She can’t help it when one or two fresh tears spring to her eyes at this, but she quickly wipes them away and declares, “Well, I don’t really know, but something big and official, like a proper press conference. This has affected our lives for too long and we should take a professional stance.” Tessa hopes she sounds more convincing than she feels. Scott moves two steps closer to her until he’s right in front of her face. He’s really hoping that this works, because if it doesn’t, he’s lost her forever.

“OK, so what you’re telling me is that you want to set up an official press conference, just to tell everyone that we’re not in love?” Tessa flinches at the word ‘love’ and how his face is the first thing she thinks of. She pushes everything to the back of her head, because she’s scared. She’s scared of all these feelings, everything that this emotional rollercoaster of a night has been. She knows she has to keep up the act, keep up this confident persona until she can convince him, and then go home, crawl into bed and cry. “Yes, yes I do, I think that would make everyone stop talking about it.” Tessa replies with a slight shake in her voice. “So you want to sit in front of all those people and specifically say the words ‘I am not in love with Scott’”. He’s taking a huge risk here, but he’s so sure that she’s hiding her true feelings that he can’t let her leave until he knows for certain. They’re even closer now and Tessa can feel the voice in her head starting again. She can feel all her practical logic slipping away and she doesn’t attempt to stop it. 

“Yep, that’s what we should do...” Tessa replies to Scott’s leading question. 

“Great. So start with me.” 

“What?” 

“Start with me. Tell me you’re not in love with me.”

Tessa feels frozen. Stuck staring into Scott’s eyes and trying to comprehend what he’s just said. She knows in her heart that she can’t do what he’s asking her to do. The entire time she’s been in Scott’s apartment she’s been trying to convince herself that she doesn’t love him and that everything will be better if they just ended the rumours. She’s been trying to hide the truth from herself and the world for too long, and having Scott’s face an inch from her own is a major contributing factor in that realisation. 

Having waited long enough for Tessa to reply, Scott can’t take it any longer. “That’s what I thought.” He laughs and finally, after far, far too long, he cups her face in his hands and places his lips on hers. He feels Tessa relax into the kiss and simultaneously wants to jump up and down and shout from the rooftops that he is kissing Tessa Virtue but also never wants to tear himself away from her lips. Tessa smiles against him and wonders why she’s such an idiot. She could have been feeling kisses like this for the last ten years if she’d just woken up and seen what was right in front of her. But none of that matters, because now, it’s just the two of them, and that’s all they need. They break apart after what feels like both years and not long enough, resting their foreheads against each other and laughing softly. “Guess I won’t put in a request for a press conference just yet then?” Scott jokes, and Tessa smacks him on the shoulder lightly before leaning in again, and she can’t help but think that this is probably the happiest she’s ever been. 

All because of that damn fanfiction.


End file.
